North Dakota oil drops by 29.5K barrels daily in December

Updated 9:20 am, Wednesday, February 17, 2016

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — North Dakota's Department of Mineral Resources says the state's oil production decreased by about 29,500 barrels a day in December, while natural gas production slipped below a record level set a month earlier.

The agency says the state produced an average of 1.15 million barrels of oil daily in December. The December production was about 75,200 barrels per day less than the record set in December 2014.

North Dakota also produced 1.67 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day in December, down slightly from the previous record set in November.

The December tally is the latest figure available because oil production numbers typically lag at least two months.

There were 41 drill rigs operating in North Dakota's oil patch on Wednesday. That's down from an average of 64 rigs in December.